Thanks for bringing that to our attention.I will look at building a list of vehicle safety requirements for UFWDA, and posting them here, and on the main page.Our 4WD awareness book has some, but they are spread around in it.

Gene, the new Vice President and I will work on the 4WD awareness book, and the list for here also.

Las Vegas. I'm the Communication Lackey for Vegas Valley 4 Wheelers. a UFWDA member club. We're putting together this year's Hump N Bump http://www.vv4w.org/humpnbump.asp and realized that we will need to mention that we'll inspect the vehicles to make sure they have the necessary safety equipment. In the past, we've used the standards set down by NUFWA, but that organization is now defunct.

As a member club of United, it seemed to make sense to use a national organization's standards. However, UFWDA doesn't have any and it doesn't make sense to subscribe to standards set down by an organization that we are not members of like Cal4Wheel.

I appreciate you bringing this to our attention, and like previously mentioned, we will post some up soon. I am sure they will not differ that much from Cal4's or any other associations.

I hope to come to Hump and Bump this year, as it is right after SEMA.

I also think that Gene from the Nevada Backroaders is going to attend, and he is the new UFWDA Vice President.Not sure if you guys have a vendor display, but I am sure Gene will contact you guys about a table for UFWDA info for the participants.

Looking at those two, and then at Cal4's, they are all about the same. Only minor differences between the three. I will go through them, and compile a list, and post it up here in a word document for clubs and organizations to use.It will have check boxes, so it can be printed out, and used per vehicle if so desired.

GLFWDA has had a lot of discussion on this and our list is quite similar. We also had the debate about inspections and liability. We came down to saying this is what you need and what is recommended. However, since "most" of us are not structural engineers, we can't comment on whether your equipment is "safe" or not. I will do a simple visual inspection and point out issues that are observed.

We also put a caveat in about spare tires. In today's world of beadlocks and extreme crawling, not "every" run requires a spare. We decided to leave it up to the trail leader and his group depending on where they were going, how far from a main road, etc.

We have quite a few licensed mechanics in our club so we do perform tech inspections prior to a vehicle going on one of our runs. We are not jerks about it but if someone is missing alot of the equipment or we feel their vehicle is not mechanically sound-we will suggest they not participate in the run. If they are missing something like a spare tire or whatever- they assume responsibility when they get stuck. I have attached a copy of our tech inspection form.

Tammy,While I respect that you have several licensed mechanics on staff, do you really want to assume the liability in that horrible case where a tow point give way and a person gets killed? And then the family member of the killed person makes the accusation that "you inspected it and approved it".

This may be chasing the extreme but in our current legitious society, we felt it better that we inform you of what is right & wrong.

It can also be argued that if we do a quaility inspection of each vehicle that everyone would be safer. But I have seen muddy vehicles show up at an event that would need a power washer first to see if their bumper mounts are rotting off or not.

I think that would be a bit extreme, as you have admitted. We do the inspections as more of a way to create an order on our trail rides and to make sure that as far as we can tell the vehicle is mechanically sound. We don't just eyeball it and yes, I put alot of faith in who we choose to do our inspections because I know they are very knowledgeable. We are not handing out inspection stickers or anything like that. We are not certifying the vehicle by any standards. We are simply using a guideline of what we think the vehicle should have to be on the trail. We verbally communicate with the owner of the vehicle. We make sure they understand the risk involved and they do. We have them sign a release waiver and when you join our club you also sign stating you have read the release of liability on our Membership Application. Anyone can sue you for anything they want and we know it can happen. But at least we have taken preventative measures that will make us look better rather than not addressing the issue at all.I can say our club has been around since 1992 and knock on wood-we have never had any problems. That is not to say we don't think everyday that something can happen! We already work on ways to address the issue if something does.

I'm not saying anyone has to use our info but we have used it for quite awhile and have found it to be effective. I thought I would pass the info along in case we can help another club out.

Absolutely. I hope you don't mistake my replies as arguments since that is not my intention at all. I am simply offering up information that will hopefully aid clubs who are trying to establish their own way of doing things. It is always helpful to have templates. Nobody has to use them but they are there if they would like to.While discussing this with my husband, your comments have inspired us to add a statement at the bottom of our Tech Inspection sheets that will explain that the Tech Inspection is by no means a certified report of the safety of one's vehicle...etc.